Hey everyone! Long time lurker, just thought I'd contribute a little information and see what everyone thought.

I took a gamble and decided to put a Hydratech/hydroboost brake booster into my cammed 2000 vette. I couldn't find much info about it on here, and it seems like opinions are divided, so I thought I'd put some feedback on here in case anyone is in the same boat and wondering if an 1100 dollar brake booster is worth it.

So, long story short: Yes it is worth the money and time Highly recommend it. The car should have came from the factory with this system.

Some background:
I bought my car already modified. The previous owner put in an aggressive cam, PRC ported heads, BBK headers, and an LS6 intake. I was prepared to put some work into it, but they actually did some decent quality work, so I lucked out (knock on wood).Brakes are 100% stock except for the EBCM delete. The engine makes about 5inHG 7-10inHg of vacuum with the AC on at idle. The brakes were good enough for regular street driving. Pedal feel is pretty normal, certainly not sporty. Brakes felt light and mushy until you really needed to hammer down on it, then it turns into a solid wall leaving you with a good amount of underutilized performance. I wasn't expecting amazing brakes, but they really couldn't keep up during spirited driving sessions.


So after getting a glowing recommendation from a friend of mine, I bought the system and spent a weekend putting it in-- took it for a long drive and... WOW! It feels like I'm driving a whole different car! It's firm and responsive! The travel is reduced! Braking is strong but easy to modulate once you've gotten accustomed to it. I was worried that the hydroboost was going to be too powerful and touchy, but that wasn't the case at all. There's even more room under the hood to work on the motor. Hydratech sends you everything you need to make the install except the power steering fluid, and the hoses are cut to fit so I could route them however I liked. Quality is superb. The hoses feel nicer than the stock ones.

I had to pull the steering column to gain access to the brake booster bolts, which wasn't comfortable, but relatively simple. Doubled as an opportunity to tidy up some of the poor workmanship the previous owners left for me. Other than that, installation was gravy, didn't even have to jack the car up off the ground. My master cylinder is plumbed in with braided hoses, so it was easy to maneuver. If you still have ABS, then you'll need to unbolt the bracket and move it out of the way, but people say the hardlines have a good amount of slack in them.

Anyway, just wanted to share my experience in case someone else is debating the upgrade. If you’ve done a hydroboost swap or are thinking about it, I’d love to hear your thoughts or see your setup!


Try to keep the hoses away from the hot exhaust.
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Still needs some finishing touches

 

5 inHg? I'm finding it hard to believe that the cam alone is contributing to the low vacuum. Did you confirm no leaks and measure manifold only vacuum to establish a baseline?


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Just to say i'm at 8 inhg if i put it in neutral coming to stop the brakes get hard as rocks. I have to keep it in second and coast down then im around 15 18ish and the brakes work as their supposed to .

 

Yep. She's worn in but running perfectly. Of course it'll make much more vacuum on decel, but the peak vacuum is still too low for the brake booster to provide full assist. I also noticed that if you don't give the engine a chance to pull more vacuum (e.g. WOT then shift into 6th or pull in the clutch) it'll deplete quickly.

 

Looks nice and seems to free up a decent amount of room. What duration cam do you have that lowers your vacuum that much? I have a 228/232 and my idle vacuum is 11.5 at 4500ft.

 

It's a mystery. The previous owner told me it had a Texas speed cam but wasn't able to elaborate any further. It feel like it's a stage 2 like yours. Might be making slightly lower vacuum due to the ported heads. Either way it's too low for adequate braking.

 

Glad it's working for you, but I'm not buying you do not have a vacuum leak somewhere.

 

For the vacuum to be that low, and that is VERY low, you must have a vacuum leak somewhere. A cam radical enough to only pull 5 or 6hg probably couldn't be tuned to idle below 1,400rpm!!

 

Throw me in the camp of there being something wrong somewhere.

You likely wouldn't be driving a cam with 5 inches on the street.

That is well beyond "donkey dick" cam specs. The bucking and surging would be insane.

 

I stand corrected. Flutters between 7-10inHg. Fuel trims are well into the negative territory, which usually indicates that there isn't a vacuum leak.

 

7-10 is still pretty low, and if you have to be downshifting completely off the throttle to achieve this figure, something is not right somewhere. 8.5 would be middle of the 7-10hg figure. Compare that to what some others here are achieving with known cam specs, and probably at idle, NOT by hitting 4,000 rpm downshifting off the throttle, and it's pretty obvious something is wrong. Absolutely key here is knowing the cam specs. If there are no vacuum leaks, that cam must be ground on a 104° LSA, or tighter!!!

 

It'll make 24inHG coming down off a rev, but again, without getting into specifics: In theory, under the right set of circumstances, which just happen to occur at triple digit speeds, it's easy to reach this limit of what the stock brake booster can offer. Theoretically, if someone needs to stop quickly from said speeds, they would not have time to downshift, and perhaps they would prefer if the brakes worked consistently all the time. Safety isn't something you want to roll the dice with.


I just wanted to put in an update: it has been about 3 weeks since I've put in the unit and I've put almost a thousand miles on it so far. The car just stops on a dime with minimal effort and feels great during regular driving. My brakes still fade when coming to a stop from certain speeds, but the hydroboost is somehow able to compensate almost like it's extending my pedal throw or something. It just doesn't bottom out the same way the stock one would when the fluid boils. Larger rotors and calipers are going on before the next season. My daily driver has Brembo brakes on it and a vacuum booster, and I've always considered them to be one of the "tighter" braking systems I've had the pleasure of using, but now it feels mushy and vague compared to the vette. I really cannot overstate how impressive this system is.

I'll keep this thread updated if anything goes wrong or if my opinion changes, but so far so good!